Cortes Island Thanksgiving Weekend 2006

Cortes Island is a gem, nestled between the mainland and Quadra Island, north of Savary Island. There are numerous kilometers of beach, fantastic old-growth groves and several small mountains. The main town, Manson's Landing, has an extremely well stocked organic food store, a community hall that shows interesting films every month, a bookstore with a solar panel and a restaurant. Squirrel Cove on the east side used to be a ship building centre - in fact Sara's great grandfather built fishing boats there - and her grandmother was born there. The Klahoose First Nation reserve is next door. The cycling is challenging - as everything is up and down! The roads are in good shape and the drivers are "bike friendly". We stayed at the southeast side on Cortes Bay. Breakfast at Hollyhock was fantastic - all vegetarian and organic! They were doing a mushroom identification course while we were there.